Three BA (Hons) Animation students recently had their short film Growing Pains handpicked by computer games mogul Ian Livingston to be shown in the House of Commons as part of the Noise Festival; a celebration of up and coming filmmakers, writers, artists and musicians.

Patrick Bucknall, Tom Priest and Jake Love worked together on the short animation for their final project, which they showcased it at this year’s Create Salford festival. The film was seen by a representative of Noise who later contacted the trio to suggest that they submitted it for consideration.

The film was then seen by Ian Livingston, curator of the Games and Interactive part of Noise, who described it as “A very amusing and entertaining animated film that is full of atmosphere, tragedy and dark humour. It has a beautiful art style with mood and drama even without the characters uttering a word.” He chose the film to be shown at the festival launch, which was held on 9th September at the House of Commons. You can watch the video below.

Since graduating, Patrick, Tom and Jake have landed internships at Ancoats based design agency, Studio Distract. They did this by sending copies of Growing Pains to various agencies around Manchester. Tom was the first one to land an interview with Ste Hanton, the agency’s Director and although it was his intention to hire just one intern, he ended up taking on all three of them. Since then, the trio has been working on children’s TV show Rollie and Friends, as well as a number of smaller projects for various clients. They are also in the process of looking for funding for a follow up to Growing Pains, so keep your eyes peeled!

Noise is clearly the first of many exciting prospects on the horizon for Patrick, Tom and Jake. If you want to take advantage of similar opportunities, visit our coursefinder page for more information on our BA (Hons) Animation course.

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